


The Lost and the Lingering

by SilenceIsGolden15



Series: Voltron Oneshots [62]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adopted Keith (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Caves, Claustrophobia, Gen, Ghosts, Horror, Memory Loss, Mystery, Spelunking, the magnus archives au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 17:23:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21480079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: The Voltron Institute is dedicated to investigating the paranormal and esoteric. The Archives are full of hundreds of thousands of reports, findings, and eye witness statements. Among them is the statement of one Kogane, K., concerning the disappearance of his adopted brother, Takashi Shirogane. Many of the case files in the Voltron Archives resist the simplicity of a concrete ending. This one, however, just might get one.
Relationships: Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Voltron Oneshots [62]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/979428
Comments: 22
Kudos: 130





	The Lost and the Lingering

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so I just started listening to the Magnus Archives and this idea leapt up and grabbed me by the throat. Have fun.

_ Statement by: Keith Kogane _

_ Date: March 5, 2018 _

_ I’ve been caving for a long time. My dad used to take me when I was a kid, before he died… obviously. Anyway, uh, I picked it up again when the Shirogane’s adopted me. They were a pretty adventurous family. Shiro, my brother, didn’t come at first, he was too busy at the Garrison. But my  _ _ chichi  _ _ I mean dad, that’s the Japanese word for it, would come with me.  _

_ I always loved being underground. It felt… secure. Safe. Like the Earth herself was protecting you. Kinda corny, but that’s how I felt. Back to my brother-- the first time he came caving with me was when I was nineteen. He was twenty-five at the time. Our parents had recently died in a car crash and Shiro broke up with his boyfriend right after. They’d been together for a long time, so it was hard for him. I thought that having something to do together would be fun, maybe take his mind off of it.  _

_ He liked it well enough. I always got the impression that he liked the climbing more than the cave aspect, but he never seemed reluctant to go and I never pressed him. He was a lot bigger than me and more muscled, so he couldn’t always get through some of the tighter gaps and squeezes, and a lot of the time I wanted to go further than he was comfortable with. But when I suggested we do this cave, he didn’t object. He sounded excited, even.  _

_ It was a stupid idea. I should’ve taken him to the cliffs I used to climb as a kid, or even gotten us day passes for an indoor climbing gym or something.  _

_ Maybe if I had, Shiro would still be alive.  _

* * *

Allura drummed her manicured fingernails on the desk in rapid succession.  _ Taptaptaptap.  _ Pause.  _ Taptaptaptap.  _ Pause.  _ Taptaptaptap.  _

With a sigh, she reached over for her mug of lukewarm coffee and took a sip. It was only her second week on the job and she’d already gone through nearly a dozen boxes of old, unfiled statements, and all the reading aloud to the tape recorder was taking a toll on her throat. Out of all the statements she’d had to read and follow up on since her first day as Head Archivist, this is the one that intrigued her the most. 

Most of the follow ups so far hadn’t yielded anything. Most of them could be chalked up to trauma or hallucinations, or the people involved couldn’t be tracked or refused another interview. But this one… this one would be different. She could feel it.

For one, the person in question had agreed to come be interviewed again. He was due to arrive in less than five minutes, according to her watch, so she left her recorder on the table and flipped the file shut as she stood. Technically the dress code at the Voltron Institute was business casual, but she’d traded her pencil skirt for slacks after the fourth day. When she was stuck underground all day with nothing but boxes of dusty paper, it wasn’t like there was anyone to impress. 

Allura picked up the manilla folder containing the statement and took it with her as she headed for the interview room. It looked innocuous enough, just plain paper in a plain folder labeled  _ Statement Of: Kogane, K  _ in black marker, followed by the date, March 5th, 2018. 

It was almost exactly a year since Mr. Kogane had given his first statement. Maybe his second could give them some clues-- she’d already sent out Lance and Pidge to do some sniffing around, but any additional clues would be welcome. 

She reached the door to the interview room two minutes before it was scheduled to begin. She went into the room next to it and cast a glance through the two way mirror. 

Mr. Kogane was already there, as she’d expected. He was pacing from wall to wall, gnawing anxiously on his nails, keeping his elbows pulled in close to his torso. He looked a bit worse for wear with the red dirt all over his worn clothing, wild hair pulled into a tiny ponytail at the base of his neck. He looked like the type who would enjoy crawling through tiny tunnels in the bowels of the Earth-- and also like the type who would come to their type of institution for assistance. 

She set his file on a small table and took a seat beside it. There was still one minute and thirty seven seconds before the interview would begin. 

Allura opened the file again. 

* * *

_ The plan was to go into the Carlsbad Caverns. We’d been there tons of times before and done almost all of the tours and stuff, but we’d never done the Spider Cave before, which I really wanted to. Shiro agreed, so we got all the permits and crap and planned the trip for March first. They do tours for the Spider Cave a lot, so we were just going to follow the main trail, going in north of the Blood River and going down past the Gnome Dome and the Grand Canyon.  _

_ A little south of there is where we were gonna split and take a detour to the Ghost Room before turning back. It wasn’t meant to take a long time-- maybe four hours in total. Still I told a friend where we were going to be, his name was Matt Holt, and how long we expected to be gone, just in case. You know, standard procedure.  _

_ It was a nice day out. It was barely spring so it wasn’t hot, only chilly enough to need a jacket, and the hike down Garden Grove Canyon to the entrance felt easy. The first tour wasn’t scheduled until nine and it was barely seven a.m., so we figured we’d have the cave all to ourselves.  _

_ The Spider Cave has a lot of climbing and squeezes to get through, but we were still making good time. When we reached the Blood River I asked to stop and have a moment where we turned out all of our lights and just stood for a moment in total darkness. _

_ It was an old tradition my dad used to do whenever we went caving. Turn out the lights and appreciate true darkness, with no residual daylight. Just a black void, nothing but you, the dark, and the sound of your own breathing. Shiro didn’t get much out of it, but he humored me and let me do it.  _

_ After a few minutes we turned our lights back on and kept going towards the Decision Room.  _

* * *

At exactly 3:30 p.m., the door to the interview room opened and Hunk strode into the room. He was a big guy, almost a head taller than Mr. Kogane and three times as wide, but even so he offered his hand with utmost gentleness and didn’t comment when it took a few seconds for the interviewee to accept the handshake. 

“Hi, I’m Hunk Garrett,” he said, his voice slightly muffled through the mirror. “And you’re Keith Kogane, right?”

“Uh huh,” answered Keith, bobbing his head in assent. He still looked nervous, his eyes darting all about the room, and he didn’t sit down until Hunk had. 

“And you gave a statement with us last year on March fifth, right?”

Keith nodded again. His eyes moved past Hunk’s head, looking right through the mirror at Allura as though he knew she was there, then looked away again. 

“Right. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like your statement was followed up on at that time,” Keith’s expression tightened, but Hunk rushed to finish his sentence before he could say anything. “But we have gone through some changes in staff recently, and our new Head Archivist already has some people working on your case.”

Keith’s shoulders visibly lost tension. Allura sat forward, resting her elbow on her knee and her chin in her hand, studying him closely. He looked tired and he sounded it too when he asked his question. 

“So you guys are looking for Shiro?”

Allura grimaced to herself. It had been more than a year since the alleged disappearance of Takashi Shirogane and there had been no signs of him after the initial search and rescue-- certainly Keith understood by now that his brother wasn’t going to be found alive. But still his eyes gleamed with a desperate hope-- probably the only thing keeping him going.

They’d done their research into Keith Kogane before opening up his case again. Everything he said in his statement was true-- his father died when he was ten years old, he lived in foster care for four years before being adopted into the Shirogane family, and after his brother’s separation from his boyfriend, the two of them lived in the family house together. 

Since Takashi’s disappearance he was a bit harder to pin down. They knew he still had ownership of the Shirogane house, but from what they could tell he didn’t live there. They didn’t know where he lived now or what kind of job he had, but something about his bedraggled appearance and that shimmer in his eye told Allura he probably didn’t do much but hope for some miracle to bring his brother back to him. 

“We’re looking into it,” Hunk said, skillfully avoiding making any promises. “In the meantime, would you mind telling us what happened again? Just to make sure we have everything right.”

Keith’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What, just by telling you? Last time I wrote it down.”

Allura’s hand spread over the cool surface of the file. 

“This interview is being recorded,” replied Hunk. Keith immediately sat up straighter and looked around, his eyes lingering on the mirror for a moment before snapping up to the corners of the room. “Just audio,” Hunk added on in a reassuring tone. “No video.”

Keith slumped again, and the bags under his eyes looked suddenly darker. 

“Ok,” he mumbled. “I guess I can tell you again if it means you’ll look for Shiro.”

Hunk leaned back in his chair and made himself comfortable. A tactic to put the interviewee at ease. “Whenever you’re ready. There’s no rush.” 

Keith looked down at his hands. After a moment of silence, he began to speak. 

* * *

_ The trip down to the Grand Canyon was easy. Well, it wasn’t easy, but it was no more difficult than we’d expected it to be. A lot of climbing, a lot of squeezing, a lot of crawling. I’ve been in Carlsbad so many times, but every new visit never failed to take my breath away. Being in a cave feels… ancient. Primal, somehow.  _

_ Anyway, to get to the Ghost Room you need to cross the Grand Canyon twice. There’s technically a short cut I could see on the map, but when I brought it up during our break next to the Canyon, Shiro vetoed it. This particular cave is almost completely undeveloped, not like the main caverns that have trails for tourists and informational plaques. He didn’t want to accidentally damage any of the cave.  _

_ He was right, obviously, so I agreed to take the normal path there and didn’t suggest the shortcut again.  _

_ It was a few minutes after that when we were breaking off the main trail and onto the optional one to the Ghost Room when I started to feel off. That doesn’t make sense. But that’s the only way I know how to describe it. Not quite anxiety, but more like… uneasiness? Which I’d never felt in a cave before, not once.  _

_ I figured I was just tired, or hungry, or my brain for some reason didn’t want to cooperate. So I tried to ignore it. I didn’t tell Shiro.  _

* * *

Allura read along in the statement as Keith began his story. It had been a year since the incident and he didn’t remember all the details he’d put down the first time, but the overall story was the same as the statement went, which was a point towards the possibility of him telling the truth. Still, she’d have to make sure Pidge went through everything she was supposed to when she got back. 

Keith was about halfway through the introduction to the story when he faltered. He was quiet for a moment, then sighed and put his elbows on the table, burying his face in his hands. He was wearing fingerless leather gloves, similar to the ones Hunk preferred to wear when he wasn’t working. 

Hunk prodded him gently, asking if he was alright, and Keith nodded, drawing in a shaky breath. 

“Yeah, I’m good, I just--” He shook his head. “Do I have to go over all of this again? You guys have my old statement already.”

“It would be better if we have a more up-to-date version,” Hunk explained. Allura half expected him to get angry, but he didn’t. He just sighed again and sat back, letting his hands fall. She should’ve known. 

No one was able to stay mad at Hunk for long. 

“So we started down the trail again…” 

* * *

_ The Ghost Room really lived up to its name. It was huge, with hundreds of stalactites hanging down from the ceiling, closely packed like in a graveyard, and all stone white. They call it the Ghost Room because, supposedly, there were a couple of explorers who stumbled into it a hundred and fifty years ago, give or take a few decades. The story goes that they’d only brought candles with them and they went out, leaving the two guys to wander around in the Ghost Room until they died of dehydration. Their skeletons were found years later by better equipped explorers, just as white as the rock around them. _

_ Or so they say. I’ve never been one for ghost stories. Or, at least, I hadn’t been.  _

_ There are a few other corridors that ring the Ghost Room. They connect with a series of tunnels called Plumber’s Nightmare, and no one without the proper permission is allowed to go back there. We didn’t so we… didn’t, I guess, but I wanted to, one day. I said so to Shiro and he laughed and ruffled my hair like I was a little kid again.  _

_ We sat for a little bit, just enjoying the view and eating some of the granola bars we’d packed before we turned back.  _

_ The tunnel that lets out into the Ghost Room is a pretty hard squeeze. Shiro had just barely fit last time, and he’d had to grab me by the wrist and pull me through, otherwise it would’ve taken ten minutes for me to worm through.  _

_ You haven’t known a tight space until you’ve been in a cave. That squeeze was so tight I could barely breathe, the rock pressing against your back and your belly, keeping your arms locked to your sides or stretched out ahead of you. In some cases you can’t even turn your head because your helmet bangs into the rock. That’s what this squeeze was like, but even worse.  _

_ Going back I told Shiro I would go first. We were both starting to get tired, and I could get through with less trouble than he would. So I made sure my helmet was on right and my gloves were tight, then I squeezed in.  _

_ This is where everything started to go wrong.  _

* * *

Allura stood up from her chair and began to pace, taking the file with her. They were on page three now of Keith’s spiky, messy handwriting, which was getting progressively shakier as it went on. His voice in the other room was doing the same as he told the story out loud. 

Hunk was listening patiently. When Keith paused for a breath, he took the opportunity to ask a question.

“So this area of the cave; it’s been well mapped out, yes?”

Keith nodded. “They do guided tours there, so they had to make sure it was as clearly mapped as possible before letting tourists in.”

“Alright, and when you exited the Ghost Room, you’re absolutely sure that you went out the same way you went in, right?”

Keith clenched his jaw, a muscle in it ticking with irritation. “Yes, I’m absolutely sure,” he said rather stiffly.

“Ok, good, just checking.” Hunk waved a hand. “Go on.”

* * *

_ Like I said earlier, that squeeze was really, really tight. To be honest I’m not sure how Shiro fit the first time. Once I was in it started feeling even tighter, which was weird. I’ve never been claustrophobic before, but being in that squeeze felt like being in a tomb. There was no room to breathe, not fully, so I just focused on wiggling forward as fast as I could. _

_ Then I thought I heard Shiro’s voice behind me, shouting something. I couldn’t understand what he said, and I couldn’t breathe deeply enough to call back. After a few seconds I decided I should just crawl back out the way I’d come in, just to make sure everything was alright. _

_ But when I tried to back up my feet hit solid rock. I pressed all over, everywhere I could reach, but there was a floor behind me. It shouldn’t have, obviously it shouldn’t have, I had just come from that way, but now all I could feel was a dead end. Like there never had been an entrance to begin with.  _

* * *

“So,” said Hunk, briefly interrupting. “Just to clarify, what you’re saying here is that you believe that the tunnel changed.”

“I don’t  _ believe  _ anything!” Keith snapped, flying suddenly into rage. “I said the tunnel changed, and I mean the tunnel fucking changed!”

Hunk held up his hands in a peacemaking gesture. Keith glared at him for a few seconds longer, then his hands uncurled from the fists they’d formed and he slumped in his seat, exhausted.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, not looking Hunk in the eye. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-- sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Hunk said in a soft voice. “Let’s just keep going. What happened after that?”

* * *

_ So, obviously I was freaking out. Who wouldn’t freak out, right? But I still couldn’t breathe and being stuck in the squeeze was starting to get to me, which was weird because I’ve been stuck before, once for over an hour, and I never panicked. But for some reason this time I was. So I decided to keep going forward, to get out of the squeeze and then look back and see what the hell was going on.  _

_ My arms were to my sides, penned in, so I just squirmed forward. You have to do that with squeezes sometimes, and it kinda makes you feel like a worm. Normally I like that feeling-- being almost stuck but not quite, it kinda feels like the Earth is holding you. This time wasn’t like that. This time I was trying to get out as fast as I could, and all of my writhing was making the rock scrape the hell out of my arms. But what else could I do, so I just kept going.  _

_ I’d barely moved a few inches when I heard a  _ clunk.  _ The sound your helmet makes when it bumps against rock. Normally this was fine and expected and normal. But I felt the impact, too, and it wasn’t on one of the edges that could’ve gotten caught. It was right in the center. _

_ I pushed up a few more inches, and I could feel the same flat pressure across my entire head, like I’d just come up against a ceiling. That couldn’t be possible either, I knew the squeeze had an exit, but no matter how many times I tried to change my position I just kept getting the same clunking sound. I was literally banging my head against a brick wall.  _

_ Then my light went out, and that’s when I started yelling for Shiro.  _

* * *

“Thank you very much for coming in, Mr. Kogane,” Hunk said with a warm smile, shaking Keith’s hand at the interview’s conclusion. “We’ll get back to you with any information that we find.”

Keith only nodded. He looked shaken from telling the story again, skin pale and a little drawn looking. He didn’t return Hunk’s waved goodbye as he exited the Institute and went out into the pouring rain. He hunched his head down, sprinted towards the road, and disappeared from view. 

Allura was back at her desk by the time Hunk returned. She had her tape recorder out and another statement in front of her, but her attention was still on the Kogane file that she had sitting off to the side. 

“What do you think?” Hunk asked her as he entered the room, moving a box of unfiled statements off of the other desk chair so that he could sit. “Is he the real deal, or just a case of psychosis from trauma?”

“I’m not sure,” Allura answered noncommittally before taking another sip of her coffee. It was truly cold now, but she was too busy to get up and make a new one. Too busy of course being code for too lazy. “We won’t know anything until Pidge and Lance report back.”

Just then, as though summoned, her phone began to ring. The contact said Lance, so for once she actually answered it. 

“This is Allura speaking.”

“Princess!” Lance’s voice was, as ever, very cheerful and also very, very loud. Allura held the phone about an inch away from her ear, rolling her eyes at the nickname. “Oh boy, you are not going to believe what we found out.”

“I’m absolutely dying of anticipation,” she responded flatly. In reality she was actually eager to hear what they had discovered, but Lance didn’t need to know that.

“Well, first of all,” said a new voice. It was Pidge-- Lance must have them on speakerphone. “The story checks out as far as the beginning is concerned. There was a permit on file for Keith Kogane and Takashi Shirogane to go into the Spider Cave on March first, 2018. A credit card charge from Keith’s account says they were in Carlsbad that morning.”

“So we’ve established they were there,” Allura summed up. “What else?”

“I found the police reports from after the guy was rescued from the cave,” Lance chimed in. “But I haven’t read the statement, so I can’t tell you if they match or not.”

“Come on back to the Institute, then,” said Allura with a sigh. The anticipation was, truly, killing her.

“But wait, there’s more!” Lance sounded like he was making a bad joke, and the squawk that he let out when Pidge smacked him confirmed the theory. “I don’t know if the guy, Keith or whatever, mentioned it, but the police found a camera on him when they found him. And I got access to the film.”

Allura smiled. “I suppose I don’t want to know how you accomplished that, do I?”

“Nope,” answered Lance cheerfully. 

“We’ll be back in a few hours,” Pidge cut in, sounding fondly exasperated. “It’ll technically be after closing time, but I think you’ll want to see this stuff. Do you mind staying late?”

“Of course not. See you then.” 

* * *

_ Shiro didn’t answer. I yelled until my throat was sore, but I never heard a peep in response.  _

_ I said earlier that I liked the dark. And I was an idiot to. This kind of dark was close and stifling, more like being smothered than being held. I squirmed as hard as I could, trying to find a way out, but there wasn’t one. All I got for my trouble was a ton of bruises and scrapes. I felt like I was in a stone coffin, being buried alive.  _

_ I don’t know how long I was down there. It felt like forever, but I’m not sure. It was probably just my brain reacting to the stress, but after a long time I thought I saw a light in the darkness. It was ahead of me, like the rock that had closed me in suddenly didn’t exist anymore, but it was dim and flickering and barely emitted enough light to make itself visible, let alone anything else.  _

_ I didn’t try to move towards it, though. It might’ve marked my salvation, but something about it didn’t feel right. It just felt bad, like malevolent. Whatever it was (it looked like the flame on a candle) I didn’t want anything to do with it. _

* * *

“What did you think of him?”

Hunk hummed and straightened up, cracking his back. It had been an hour or so since Lance’s phone call, and the two of them had spent it going through more statements and preparing them to be recorded the next day. The Kogane file still sat open on Allura’s desk, though she hadn’t looked at it in a while. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t been thinking about it.

“I think he’s telling the truth,” Hunk said, “as far as he knows, anyway. Whether any of it literally happened I’m not sure, but he thinks it did.”

Allura got up and began to pace around her office. She’d been sitting for a while and her legs were stiff-- and also she needed to think. 

For a few minutes she did so in silence, Hunk quietly sorting through more statement folders and letting her process whatever thought was in progress. Eventually she stopped in front of a gray filing cabinet, on top of which was an aged photograph. It was of herself, barely nine years old, with her father and mother. Beside them stood another man with a large mustache. 

“I have an uncle,” she said, half to herself. “He used to work at the Carlsbad park as a ranger.”

“Used to?” asked Hunk. “Did he pass away?”

Allura laughed a little and shook her head. “No, no, he’s alive. He may even still be there. I just haven’t spoken to him in a long while.”

“Maybe you should give him a call,” Hunk suggested. “See if he heard about this whole thing.”

Allura was already turning back to her desk when she said, “That’s an excellent idea.” 

* * *

_ After a few minutes (I think) it started to glow brighter. A halo of light was growing around it. I didn’t like it at all, but I didn’t have anything else to look at, so I watched. It started to look like a lit candle, and as the light grew and grew, I started to see something else. _

_ A pale, thin hand, wrapped around it.  _

_ I had no idea what was happening. Maybe I was dead. Maybe I’d hit my head hard enough that it got through the helmet. Maybe I was hallucinating. I don’t know. But the sight of that hand, pale as a corpse and floating in the middle of the darkness, scared the absolute hell out of me.  _

_ After that things are a little blurry. I know I yelled some more, but I can’t remember if I was calling for Shiro or if I was just shouting. Again, I have no reference for how long I was stuck there looking at the damn light. I wanted it to go away, but I didn’t want to be locked in the dark again. _

_ A few hours ago that darkness had been soothing. Now it felt threatening, and something in my gut warned me that if I went back into it, I would never come out again.  _

* * *

“Of course I remember!”

Allura had forgotten one big thing about her uncle, and that was that he was even louder than Lance.

“It was only last year,” he continued bombastically as Allura winced at the volume and Hunk raised an eyebrow in her direction. “That poor lad was nonsensical when the other rangers pulled him out of the cave. I wasn’t one of them to go down, but I was there when they came up. He was out of his mind; kept yelling about his brother, telling us to go save him. Such a tragedy.”

“Is that all he said?” Allura dared to ask. “Did he only talk about his brother?”

“Hmmmmmm.” If she remembered his mannerisms correctly, he would be stroking his mustache right about now. “Now that you mention it, I believe I heard him say a few other things. Something about a candle, I think, and perhaps a ghost. Though the other rangers did say he was probably referring to the Ghost Room.”

“Yes, of course.” Allura glanced over at Hunk and nodded. Those details were in line with what was in the statement. “Thank you, Uncle Coran.”

“No problem, my dear! Don’t be a stranger now, maybe we can meet up for coffee.”

Allura smiled to herself. She’d forgotten how much she missed eccentric Uncle Coran. “I’d be happy to. I’ll call you when I have my availability. Thank you again. Good night.”

Her uncle responded with his own goodbyes, and Allura hung up. Of course this didn’t prove that anything in the statement had actually happened, only that Keith’s perceptions at the time of the event were the same as when he gave the statement. So he was most likely telling the truth. 

What he thought was the truth, anyway. 

* * *

_ Then I blinked. Or fell asleep, or passed out, or something. All I know is that one minute I was staring at the orange light, and a second later it changed. It wasn’t yellow anymore, and the image of the candle and the hand were gone. Instead it looked like daylight. _

_ I thought it was too good to be true. But I started moving again, and the tunnel seemed to widen, enough for me to wiggle one arm out ahead of myself. My hand went through the hole first, and when I felt the breeze and the warmth of sunlight on it I nearly cried.  _

_ I’m not sure if this part was real or not. I’m not sure if any of it was, honestly, but this is the part I question the most. As I was climbing out of the hole, I thought I heard a voice calling from the other end of the passage. It sounded like Shiro, but before I could decide whether to turn back or not there were people around me, pulling me out.  _

_ That’s when I started screaming. I didn’t want to leave Shiro down there. But I didn’t have a choice. _

_ Looking at all of this written down, I can see why the police didn’t take me seriously. I barely take myself seriously without the terror of imminent death weighing over me. But it almost doesn’t matter, what happened to me.  _

_ What matters is that Shiro is still down there, and I’m not going to give up until I find him.  _

* * *

“We brought coffee!”

Allura looked up, a little bleary eyed from staring at endless pages of text. Pidge and Lance had just emerged from the elevator, Lance with a cardboard drink carrier full of steaming cups and Pidge clutching her laptop to her chest. In her other hand dangled a small camera, probably meant to be attached to a helmet-- Keith’s, she assumed. 

“God bless you,” replied Hunk with feeling. He gave a delighted shiver when Lance handed him his cup. Allura’s was next, the warmth pleasant against her chilled fingers. Caramel blossomed over her tongue when she sipped, and she sighed. This was exactly what she needed.

While she and Hunk were fawning over their caffeine salvation, Lance and Pidge made themselves comfortable on the floor of Allura’s office. Pidge put her laptop down and opened it, letting Lance fiddle with connecting the camera to it. 

“Well?” Allura asked once she’d been properly revitalized. She still cradled the cup like it was an infant. “What did you find?”

Lance flipped through a few papers that he’d apparently pulled from Pidge’s backpack. They were a little wrinkled, but he smoothed them flat with his hands.

“Police report says they got a call in the early hours of March second,” he read from the paper. “The call was from Matt Holt, the brother of our very own Katie Holt.”

Pidge rolled her eyes and elbowed him. He only smiled a bit before continuing. 

“After their disappearance was reported, the police sent search and rescue into the cave, along with some of the rangers to guide them. Twenty four hours after the two of them descended into the cave they found Keith, only a few yards away from the entrance of the Spider Cave.”

Allura frowned and traded a look with Hunk. That didn’t match the statement, which was concerning. 

“He had some scrapes and bruises and was pretty dehydrated, but mostly ok. The report does note that he was frantic about finding his brother.” Lance glanced up, and Allura nodded, indicating he should continue. “The only weird thing about it was that he was found near a small pile of burned down candles.”   
“Matt swears they didn’t pack any candles,” Pidge chimed in for a second before Lance shushed her. 

“This is my thing to explain. Anyway, they searched for another day or so, but they didn’t find any trace of the older brother. No equipment or remains or anything. He just… vanished.” He ended on a spooky voice, waving his fingers in the air until Allura sent him a disapproving look. Sure, they dealt in the supernatural and strange, but it wouldn’t cost him anything to have some tact. 

“That’s not how the statement went,” said Hunk, taking another noisy slurp of his drink. “Doesn’t really bode well for Keith’s psych eval.”

“I wouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet.” Pidge sounded excited as she turned her laptop around to face them. “Most of the footage on the cam is basic climbing footage, like this.” She hit the spacebar and the screen lit up.

It showed a man with his back turned, walking and sliding down an incline into a canyon, the person behind him apparently filming. The sunlight was soft and their shadows long, indicating that it was morning. Neither of them seemed to be talking much. 

“But there is a part at the end that’s interesting.” She hit another key and the screen went dark again. “It’s dark like this the whole time, but I can’t tell if its because it was somewhere dark or if there was just a lens cap on. But that’s not what’s important-- just listen.” She pressed play. 

For a moment Allura didn’t hear anything. The only thing on the screen was the timestamp in the bottom corner, reading March second, at 2:03 a.m. 

She was about to give in and ask Pidge what she was supposed to be hearing when she caught it. A quiet, whispering voice, barely audible. It seemed to be whispering the same thing, over and over again in increasing distress, and despite the rough quality Allura could recognize it as Keith’s voice. 

_ “Take me, not him. Take me, not him.”  _

After a few seconds Pidge turned the disturbing whispers off. “That goes on for about two hours,” she said, seeming a bit more solemn now. 

“That’s not in the statement, though,” Hunk replied. “And he didn’t say anything about it today, either.”

“It’s possible he was doing it without knowing,” suggested Lance. “Like talking in your sleep or something.”

Pidge’s attention was fastened on Allura. “So? Are you going to keep looking into this one?”

Allura sat back, slowly drinking from her coffee, letting the sweetness distract her from the chills that ran down her spine listening to the video. 

“What do you all think?”

Hunk shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s worth it. Sounds to me like they had a caving accident and Keith’s brain couldn’t handle it. Happens all the time.”

“I say we look into it,” said Pidge with her characteristic firmness. “Matt swears they didn’t pack any candles, and that video is enough to convince me that something was up in that cave.”

“I’m not too enthused about the prospect of going into a haunted cave,” Lance said. “But I’ll be honest, that video creeped me out. I think we should investigate, just to make sure that he’s crazy and it’s not an actual ghost.”

Allura rolled her neck from side to side, smirking at the disgusted face Lance made when the joints popped. 

“Alright, I’ll put in the request tomorrow. For now, I’m going to go home, and I suggest the rest of you do the same.” 

* * *

Three days later the group of them were climbing out of a rented minivan onto the dusty ground of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. They were all equipped with proper shoes, gloves, helmets, climbing gear, everything they would need, and the Institute had made certain to get their permit approved. 

Unfortunately, none of them had even the slightest idea how to climb around in a cave. Fortunately, they knew someone who did.

“Allura!” cried Coran as he exited the main park building, making a beeline for their group. The moment he reached them he swept her up into his arms, picking her up and spinning her in a circle. “It’s been too long, my dear.”

“I missed you too, Uncle,” said Allura, and wasn’t surprised to find that she meant it. Coran had been her favorite uncle when she was a little girl, and apparently time hadn’t softened the fondness she felt for him. 

_ But _ , she had to remind herself,  _ you are here on business.  _ She pulled away.

“Uncle Coran, these are my coworkers, Hunk, Lance, and Pidge. Team, meet my Uncle Coran.”

They all exchanged pleasantries. She could already tell that Lance was going to be her uncle's favorite with all of his eager chattering. Though annoying at times, it shouldn’t interfere with their investigation. 

At least, she didn’t think it would. Generally speaking, Head Archivists did not do field work. But, as Allura had argued to the President of the Institute, the reason she’d been hired was to be different from how Head Archivist Honerva had been running things, to bring a unique perspective. Miraculously, the argument worked, and here they were.

“So,” said Coran as he herded them away from the car. Pidge was carrying a backpack almost bigger than she was, stuffed full of sensory equipment and recording devices, while Hunk carried their full day’s worth of food and water. “You lot are going to be going through the Spider Cavern, yes?”

Allura nodded. Some of her silver hair escaped her ponytail and fell into her eyes, which she brushed away impatiently. 

“Yes, we particularly wanted to see the Ghost Room.”

“Ah, that’s a lovely spot,” answered Coran. If he made the connection between their outing today and the conversation they’d had a few days ago, he didn’t say so. “Almost hauntingly lovely, you could say.”

Lance laughed at his joke, but Allura just felt a bit… unsettled. 

“You’re all in for a treat,” he continued. “The Spider Cave has been closed off to visitors since the incident last year. You’ll be the first group allowed in since then.”

Actually, that  _ was  _ a treat for them. If no other groups had been into the cave since Shiro’s disappearance, any evidence that was left behind would be that much easier to retrieve. 

“Just this way. A bit of a hike, but it’s a beautiful day for it!” 

It was, in fact, a beautiful day. They walked along in silence, the early morning air feeling cool and calm, the sun warming their clothes as it rose above the mountains. Coran lead them down into the canyon, and it was with a jolt that Allura realized they were walking the same path they’d seen Keith and Shiro take on the video. It was a bit disconcerting to walk in their footsteps knowing what happened next.

Or what Keith claimed happened next, that is. 

At length they approached the entrance. A sizable hole in the ground, ready with anchors for ropes, lined with large granite boulders. All about as Allura had expected. 

What wasn’t expected was the other shape they saw already climbing into the cave.

“Hold up!” cried Coran, sprinting ahead of them. The figure paused, probably debating whether to keep descending or flee, but that half second allowed Coran to catch up and haul them from the hole by their arm. 

Allura was both shocked and not to see that it was Keith. 

Coran certainly didn’t seem surprised. He simply stopped and shook his head, as though he’d caught his puppy gnawing on the curtains. “Keith, I’ve told you time and time again, you’re not allowed in the cave without a permit.”

Keith looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. “I know, Coran. I just wanted to look around a little.” 

“You’ve been “looking around a little” for a year.” Keith’s jaw clenched at the reprimand, and Coran softened his approach in response. “Lad, I understand how you feel. But you can’t be in the caverns alone. It’s dangerous.”

In their quest to escape Coran’s gaze, Keith’s eyes fell on their little group, hanging back from the confrontation. His face remained impassive, but the sudden tension in his muscles gave him away. He recognized Hunk from the Institute, and now he knew why they were here. Allura guessed his plan a second before he said it.

“Then I won’t go alone. I can go with all of you.”

“That is out of the question,” said Coran, trying to sound firm and decided, but Allura knew better. She was already considering how they were going to handle having an extra person along. “The permit does not allow for an extra person.”

Keith folded his arms over his chest and planted his feet. “I could always just follow you once you go in, you know.”

Coran folded his arms too, looking a bit childish in the process. “Not if I radio my fellow rangers and tell them to keep an eye on you, you won’t.”

Keith pointedly looked him up and down. “I don’t see a radio anywhere, do you?”

Lance and Hunk snickered behind their hands. Pidge appeared delighted. Allura was just getting impatient. 

“It’s alright, Uncle,” she said, stopping Coran’s retort before it left his lips. “One extra shouldn’t be a problem, so long as he behaves himself.” 

At Keith’s wary look, Allura stepped forward and held out her hand. “I’m Allura, I’m the Head Archivist at the Voltron Institute. Nice to meet you.”

Keith didn’t shake her hand. Instead he just said, “You were the one behind the mirror, weren’t you?”

She smiled. “Yes, I was. I’m also the person who decided your case required some following up on. Is that alright with you?”

He regarded her for a moment, then without saying a word, turned back to the cave entrance and began to climb. 

The rest of them, after exchanging bemused glances, followed. 

The air inside the cave was cool, the way only deep shadows can be, and only a bit humid. It was utterly dead and still within, none of the air moving an inch without any wind to move it. The entrance was narrow, forcing each of them to enter individually, and though their headlamps cast light a decent distance down the passage, they were all eventually swallowed up into the darkness. 

Allura positioned herself behind Keith. She was surprised to note that he didn’t seem at all distressed at being back in the cavern, until she remembered his conversation with Coran. Based off that she could assume he’d been back several times while searching for his brother. Brave of him, all things considered. 

“Right then,” said Coran once they were all inside. Even he lowered his volume a bit-- the air had a sort of heaviness to it that weighed voices down into whispers, as though they feared to disturb whatever lurked beyond the next curve of the corridor. “You said you wanted to see the Ghost Room, yes?”

Allura shivered, but nodded. 

“Excellent. We should get going, then. Some of those squeezes will be interesting with all of your equipment.”

Pidge already had two recorders out, one digital and one tape, holding one in each hand. That would get unwieldy for sure, but for now Allura didn’t say anything about it. They needed to collect as much data from this cave as they could in order to determine the legitimacy of Keith’s story. 

One by one they followed Coran down the narrow corridor. For the first tiny portion of their trek Allura wasn’t sure what all the fuss over caves was about. It all looked to her like the same white, chalky stone. Then they came out of the first corridor, and when Coran directed their view to the left, her breath caught. 

There was a massive wall there, over which ran rusty colored water, staining the whole thing. Here are there were gaps in the stone lined with white and crystals, with a deep turquoise emanating from the center. 

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” said Coran, proudly, as though he’d made it himself. “The color is caused by copper oxide, which reacts with the water to create…”

Allura zoned out. Pidge and Hunk were listening to Coran’s explanation avidly, but Lance seemed as bored as Allura, directing his gaze at the wall itself, eyes full of awe. Keith on the other hand lingered on the edge of the group, fidgeting and obviously eager to move on. Despite his impatience, he didn’t seem like he was going to start running ahead, either. 

Allura wondered how long that would last. 

* * *

Keith wasn’t an idiot. 

He knew Shiro was dead. He knew that everything he experienced was probably just a stress induced hallucination. He knew dragging all of these Institute people down here was a waste of time and that they probably thought he was a nutcase. 

But he needed proof. He needed to know. And, most of all, he needed to bring Shiro home, even if it was only bones. 

Getting down to the Ghost Room was taking forever with all of these newbies gawking and gaping at every big stalagmite. Ok, that was probably mean. But for him the cave had lost any kind of beauty it had once held, or any peace, or any awe. Now it was a place of fear and loss, his own personal hell that he kept diving into time after time, trying to find something that wasn’t there.

None of the other people could tell how much he was freaking out. He kept on an impassive face, but internally he was losing approximately all of his shit. Months of exposure therapy hadn’t made the claustrophobia any better, nor had it affected his now instinctive fear of the dark. He had to keep a light on in his room for God’s sake, like a little kid, just to keep that darkness from returning and eating him up alive. 

“Hey.” 

He jumped a little at the unexpected voice and turned to see the guy who had interviewed him walking at his side. What was his name… Hunk?

“Uh… hi.”

Traumatic experiences had not done wonders for Keith’s social skills. 

“You doing alright?” Hunk asked, giving him a look that was distinctly compassionate and not pitying. That look felt like a knife in the heart-- it looked just like Shiro’s. “With being back here, I mean.”

Realizing he hadn’t answered yet, Keith cleared his throat and said, “Yeah, I’m good.” Unfortunately Hunk didn’t seem to buy it, but before he could say anything else Coran was halting the group for the umpteenth time. Keith almost groaned aloud, until he noticed where they were. Then his blood ran cold. 

“Here we are,” the ranger declared. If there had been more space, he might’ve done a flourishing movement. “The fabled Ghost Room. Legend has it--”

Keith was out of patience. Shoving someone aside (it might’ve been Lance) he strode up to the squeeze and pushed into it without hesitation. There might’ve been some voices raised in protest but he wasn’t sure-- his blood was roaring in his ears, his heart going too fast and too loud to hear anything else. 

As with every other squeeze they’d gone through that day, Keith was instantly swimming in terror the moment he felt the stone sandwiching him between them. Fearful that at any moment the rock could close up on him, entomb him again, bury him alive and this time never let him out. But, as with every time before, he powered through on sheer spite, wiggling through the squeeze with determination. 

He didn’t stop to think about how the others, especially Hunk, were going to get through. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting through this one squeeze and into the next room. That’s it. 

_ Push push push.  _

After a few horrifying moments where Keith thought he was going to vomit, he lurched out of the squeeze and onto the ground, victorious. The rock hadn’t closed up on him. He made it. He actually made it all the way to the Ghost Room. 

In all of his attempts in the last year, he’d never made it all the way back here. He’d always given up under the unrelenting onslaught of panic attacks that always accompanied him when he went down here. But this time he’d made it. Finally. 

“Keith!” called a voice from behind him. He turned to see a brown hand sticking out of the squeeze as Allura tried to make her way through it. “A little help, please?”

He was tempted to leave the group and go looking for Shiro by himself, but unfortunately his sense of decency was still intact, so he took her hand and pulled Allura through the squeeze. Next was Pidge, shoving her backpack full of equipment ahead of her, followed by Lance, and then Coran. Hunk’s backpack made it through fine, but its owner was another issue entirely. 

For a moment Keith didn’t think he’d make it through at all. But he was insistent, and after a lot of pulling, he finally emerged on the other side. 

“Well then,” said Allura, setting her hands authoritatively on her hips. “Let’s start getting all of the equipment set up. Coran, how long are we allowed to stay?”

Coran stroked his mustache thoughtfully. “About four hours, I’d say.”

Pidge looked a bit displeased with that, but Allura just said, “Then we’ll have to make the most of it,” and got them working. 

Keith seated himself near the squeeze they’d all entered from and watched the group bustle around, setting up cameras and recorders, temperature sensors, pressure gauges, along with a lot of stuff he didn’t recognize. He had no idea what they hoped to find with all of that, but maybe it was something that would lead them to Shiro. Or Shiro’s remains. 

After a while he got up, unable to bear sitting still any longer, and began to pace around the room near the edges of where the light reached, peering into the shadows, hoping to see something. He made two complete circuits, but all he saw was the shapes of rock formations and utter black. That darkness is what kept him from searching further-- he feared going into it. He hated himself for it, but he couldn’t bear the dark again. 

When he turned back to the group the equipment was all set up. Pidge and Hunk sat together, surrounded by screens and lights and meters, keeping close attention to all of the date coming in. Allura and Coran talked near the entrance, their voices too low to pick up. He thought someone was missing, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember who. Their name started with an L he thought…

“Boo!”

Keith jumped about ten feet in the air, his heart stopping in his chest for what felt like a solid five seconds. When he turned he saw Lance standing beside him, bent over and shaking with laughter. 

“You  _ asshole,”  _ Keith hissed at him, breathing hard and trying to calm the adrenaline that had shot through his system. Lance was still laughing, so Keith tacked on, “That wasn’t  _ funny.” _

“Sorry, sorry,” said Lance, though it was accompanied by chuckles that dulled its sincerity. “You’re just so wound up, I couldn’t resist.”

He felt himself bristle. Of  _ course  _ he was wound up. He’d nearly died here, and he’d lost his brother in the process, why wouldn’t he be tense? 

Lance continued before Keith could say anything. “Here,” he said, pressing a flashlight into Keith’s hand. He had one, too. “Let’s do a little looking around, ok? We won’t go far from the group, I just want to get a look at the rocks.”

Keith gulped. A cold pit of dread settled into his stomach, but he tried his best to ignore it. This is what he was here for. “Ok.”

A little reluctantly, he followed Lance as he approached the edge of their light circle and flicked on his flashlight. It fell on a couple of large stalagmites, bone white and twice as wide as the two of them put together. Lance gave a low whistle, impressed, but Keith only shuddered. A year ago he thought the formations looked like elegant columns holding up a Greek temple. Now they looked like jagged teeth in the maw of a beast, waiting to consume anything that wandered too close. 

After a few seconds Lance moved on, and again Keith followed. They made a slow circle around the group, Lance making impressed sounds and comments as they went. Keith said nothing, trying not to give away the fact that he was shaking. He hated this place, he could feel the walls closing in, the darkness breathing down the back of his neck, but he couldn’t leave. Not yet.

“Woah,” said Lance, bringing them to a sudden halt. They’d made it almost all the way around back to the entrance, and now faced a grouping of tiny stalagmites, all lined up like toy soldiers. 

_ Or candles,  _ Keith’s mind supplied unhelpfully. 

“That’s so neat,” Lance continued, taking a few steps closer. Keith instinctively reached out and grabbed his arm, the beam of light wavering as the hand that held it was jostled, and stopped him from moving any further. “What’s wrong?” he asked, but Keith wasn’t paying attention to him anymore.

Instead he was watching the light that had appeared in the darkness, three feet above the field of stalagmites. It was small, barely enough to light itself, glowing orange and yellow as the shadows flickered around it. It didn’t look like any of the LED lights the Institute people had lugged in.

No, this one looked like a candle. 

“You’re seeing it too, right?” he breathed out. In his periphery he saw Lance give a slow nod, just as transfixed by the light as Keith was. His entire body had gone cold, frozen in place like a statue, the dread from before gradually uncurling into fear. 

This was how it had started last time. 

“Hey, we’re getting some readings.” Keith barely heard Pidge’s voice in the background. “Air pressure rising, temperature dropping, light level increasing, but only a tiny bit.”

Then Allura gasped and said, “Look,” and the whole room fell silent. They were all looking at the light, too.

The circle of light from the ghostly candle was growing, ever so slowly. It revealed the yellow wax it was burning. Then fingers, one by one, thin and pale and clutching the candle so tightly it was a wonder it didn’t crumble to pieces. That hand, the dim, ghostly hand that Keith had seen when he’d been trapped in the stone. 

The silence was broken by a small pinging sound from the electronic equipment, followed by Hunk’s voice. “We’re getting another set of readings from the other side of the room. Identical.”

Keith hazarded a glance over his shoulder. As expected, across the room another light was glowing. 

Two candles. 

Two hands. 

Two spirits. 

* * *

Holding her breath, Allura edged forward enough to grab Lance’s arm and began to pull him back to the center of the light, pulling Keith along as well. Coran, Hunk, and Pidge watched the light on the other side of the room, while she, Lance, and Keith watched the first.

It was eerie all right. As far as she could tell the tunnels hadn’t done any changing on them, which was a relief. Honestly she hadn’t expected field work to be… scary. 

“Alright,” she murmured after a few minutes of them staring at the candles burning ominously beyond their reach. “Lets get some more readings, and then--”

Abruptly Keith let go of Lance’s arm and started towards the candle. Allura was too far to grab him, and when Lance tried Keith shook him off, his gait determined as he approached. 

“Keith!” Allura admonished, heart catching in her throat. “Don’t approach--”

“I know you’re there!” he shouted into the shadows. His voice reverberated and echoed around the stone room, returning on them three fold, which only increased the adrenaline leaking into Allura’s system. Lance clung to her arm shamelessly, and Allura gripped him just as tightly. “I know you’re the ones who took Shiro. Give him back!”

“Keith,” tried Pidge, “I don’t think--”

“You sadistic motherfuckers!” he continued, unheeding of Pidge’s words. “You want everyone else to suffer like you did! Well guess what?”

Lance tittered nervously at Allura’s side. “Dude, seriously, yelling at the ghosts is so not a good idea--”

“I’ve had enough suffering!” Keith kicked one of the tiny stalagmites. The tip broke off and sailed into the shadows behind the floating candle, and they all heard the impact when it hit the ground again. That echoed too, bouncing around so many times it almost sounded like a rock slide heading straight for them. 

Coran was the last one to attempt to placate Keith. He moved forward, probably just trying to protect more formations from being broken, but Keith was still shouting. 

“You hear me? I’ve suffered enough! Now give me my brother back, you dead sons of bitches!”

Utter silence consumed the cavern. The only sound was the dim humming of the lights and Keith’s labored breathing as they waited. For what, Allura had no idea, but even so she waited for whatever was going to happen. 

Their lights flickered. There was time for Pidge to make a sound of alarm before they went out completely. 

Almost instantly Keith screamed, no longer out of anger but in terror. Lance yipped and practically cut off the circulation in Allura’s arm. Coran exclaimed something she didn’t hear. Hunk whimpered. Allura merely sucked in a breath through her teeth and held it. 

She counted the seconds they were in the dark.  _ One… two… three… _

The candles had vanished. All around them was darkness, oppressive. The word Keith had used in his statement,  _ tomb,  _ suddenly seemed incredibly accurate.  _ Four… five… six… _

“Now everyone stay calm,” Coran said, making them all jump a little. His voice shook, but his ranger training had apparently kicked in.  _ Seven… eight… nine… _

_ Ten.  _

The lights turned on again. Immediately Allura did a headcount. She came up with seven, but that couldn’t be right, they’d come down with six, hadn’t they? She counted again, and this time her eyes fell on the new figure standing near the edge of the light. 

It was a man, tall and well built. His clothing was so tattered it was impossible to tell what it might have been originally, and his hair was long, past his shoulders. The details that really stuck out was the strips of white in his hair, falling over his eyes, and the lost expression on his face. 

“Shiro!” Keith darted across the room and crashed against the man’s chest, nearly knocking him over in the process. He looked down at the top of Keith’s head and frowned in confusion.

“Keith?” he said softly, his voice raspy and rough. “What’s… going on…”

Allura exchanged astonished looks with the others. She rubbed her eyes and looked again, but the scene hadn’t changed at all. When she glanced back at where the ghostly candles had been, they’d disappeared, taking the oppressive air with them. 

“Woah,” Lance breathed at her side. Hunk was tearing up at the reunion, which Shiro was now actively participating in as he hugged Keith back, though he still looked a bit dazed. 

Pidge only muttered, “We’re going to have to do so much paperwork.” 

* * *

_ Statement by: Takashi Shirogane _

_ Date: March 9, 2019 _

_ I don’t really know what to say. One minute I was watching Keith climb into the squeeze, and the next everything was black. I don’t remember much from it, just… utter, consuming darkness, like when Keith used to turn all the lights out, but much more suffocating. I think I remember seeing a candle or something glowing, but that’s it. Next thing I knew I was walking towards a circle of light, and all of you were standing there with Keith.  _

_ You guys said I’d been gone for a year, but that can’t be true. I see it everywhere, on calendars and billboards and clocks, but I still can’t quite believe it. There’s no way I was gone that long. There was no water in that cave, no food, and I couldn’t have survived that long and not remembered any of it. I really don’t understand. _

_ But I guess it doesn’t matter. I still have nightmares about it, and so does Keith, but I’m back and I’m alive, which is all I need to know.  _

_ Hopefully I can put it all behind me.  _

* * *

“Statement ends.

“I don’t think we’ll ever know what exactly happened in the Spider Cave that day, or on the day of the original disappearance. The possibility of a haunting is there, but there’s also the possibility of a group hallucination. How Takashi Shirogane stayed alive in the cave for a year with no one spotting him is just another question to add to the list of things that will never be answered. But the team have all given their statements of it, along with the two brothers, Coran, and myself, to be added to the file with records of all the readings Hunk and Pidge collected while we were there. The Voltron Institute has advised the Carlsbad Caverns National Park to cease granting permits to individual cavers in the Spider Cave, which will hopefully prevent such an event happening in the future. This case will be filed under “Investigated to Furthest Extent”, and hopefully will remain there. 

“Recording ends.”


End file.
